Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

When Seth reached the laboratory, he found the door unlocked.

After Mina had to regretfully follow her duties and left, Seth had made his plan for today. Following a late breakfast, he went to visit the alchemy labs. It had been a bunch of weeks already and the blacksmith thought it was time to drink his second serving of Alison's wonder potion.

It was the first time he found the door unlocked and he couldn't help but enter. The sight stunned him a little. Except for very early on, he never really entered the laboratory after Alison and Evee took it over.

He wasn't shocked because he didn't know what a chemistry laboratory looked like, but because of the duality of the workspace.

One side was the typical clean modern style. All kinds of complicated apparatuses, glass constructions, and beakers filled tables as colorful fluid boiled or flowed along fine tubes. Walls filled with cupboards for equipment and materials filled the wall. The only difference to a modern lab was the distinct magic formulas, formations, and arcane burners that heated up material.

On the other corner, however, was the perfect example of a witch's hut. Dry and drying herbs and monster parts were hanging from strings or hooks at the wall and ceiling. Tables and shelves packed with jars and materials ranging from normal-looking stuff like garlic all the way to pickled goblin toes.

A big cauldron reigned over the corner of the room and he was surrounded by a court of smaller cauldrons and smaller magical fires like a king. Some had magic runes drawn around them on the ground, others stood a combination of wheels of unknown use.

Looking around the room that smelled of chemicals and herbs, he found Alison sitting at a desk, sleeping. A big ancient-looking book served as her pillow. The book's friends and family were strewn across the ground or were stacked up to towers of worrisome height.

Seth couldn't help but shake his head. Even he was not this messy. Especially since Alison had no excuse for this mess, the walls were covered in now almost empty bookshelves. She had literally just been too lazy to put the tomes back on the shelves.

Sneakily, he weaved through the maze of books until he stood beside the sleeping alchemist. Lifting her slightly messy bed hair to the side, he whispered in her ear.

"A~lison, A~lison. I have sorted all the books back into the she~lves. Alphabetically!"

"What!? No! Not alphabetically! They were all in perfect order!" she suddenly exclaimed, jolting awake.

She looked around in panic, only to see that nothing had changed, except the chuckling blacksmith standing beside her. She sighed in relief and slumped back down on the book-pillow.

"What are you doing here?" she asked a little warped as her face was squished sideways on the book.

"I came to get my second dose of your attribute potion," he explained to her.

Her arm lifted straight up and pointed at a metal cabinet that almost drowned between the books.

"It's called Alison's Attribute Elixyr now. Just take one. As the Tower master you are the only one who can open it, except for me and Evee." she mumbled.

"Why Elexyr?" he asked puzzled.

"It sounds fancier," she explained unapologetically.

A marketing decision. Seth could understand that. Without comment, he stepped up to the cabinet. Rows of colorful seals lit up and were unlocked when Seth touched it, allowing him to take one of the bottles.

He didn't stand on ceremony and drank it on the spot. A row of notifications told him that his Strength, Dexterity, Agility, and Endurance. He could feel his muscles become bigger, a little denser and his body becoming tougher. He stretched a few times to loosen and get used to the small change.

<Ding! Title:" Muscleman" gained. "Your strength attribute has reached 200 points." +2 Universal Attribute Points.>

Muscleman? Seth was stunned and looked down at himself. Okay, he had to admit that he had become kind of muscular, but he wasn't some pumped-up bodybuilder. It was mostly thanks to his other attributes not lacking too far behind and balancing everything out.

Except for intelligence at 151 and agility with 172, all his normal attribute's base values had breached 180. Would he get another title for each of them, once they broke through 200, like when they broke through 100?

The first round of titles had improved the multipliers for the invisible stats, these titles gave him two Universal Attribute Points. It was arguable which one was better since he could use these points on the special attributes

The decision of where to put these two points was relatively easy for Seth. They went right into his Luck Attribute bringing it to 88. If it came true and he would gain another two Universal Attribute Points, those would also flow into luck.

He looked forward to the titles once he reached 100 Luck. What kind of improvements would that bring him? But after a short calculation, Seth was a little disappointed. Even if he managed to bring all his other normal attributes to 200, he would still be short two points!

It meant he would need to look for another method to raise luck OR somehow raise his personality to 200 points, too... Yeah, no, it was more probable that he could find something like a potion to raise his luck by two points.

Well, this was something for future Seth to worry about. Belatedly he realized that Alison had silently watched him grimacing over his inner monologue.

"I... will be going then."

"Sure, please lock the door when you leave," the wizard said disinterestedly.

Seth skedaddled back out of the lab and ordered the tower to lock the door behind him. Since Alison was inside, Evee must have left the door unlocked... It wasn't like her, but everyone had a sloppy day once in a while.

Seth gave it a serious thought, but there was nothing else coming to his mind that needed his immediate attention in Minas Mar.

Remembering how crowded the system church had been upon his arrival, Seth decided not to use teleportation this time. Instead, he used the elevator. Back then, it had led to the lobby of the Willis Building but now he stood in a private room on the bottom floor of Minas Mar's office building in Delta.

The door to the elevator actually needed the tower master's authority or a ring of one of the Lords of Minas Mar. Stepping out of the private room, he faced a grand lobby with the flair of an ancient temple.

Although the construction of the building was not complete, the lobby had been finished first. Columns and mighty statues lined the walls. Although Seth had not been involved with the architectural design, the depictions of blacksmiths took the main stage. Together with alchemists and a party of warriors and even a tailor, they represented the main business of Minas Mar.

Taking a deep breath, it, unfortunately, didn't smell of power and grandeur, but of freshly finished construction work. Even if it looked awe-inspiring and ancient, it was still a freshly build lobby. Just like Minas Mar was still a young business, even though they built it on ancient foundations.

Seth stepped out into the sun and enjoyed the view. He couldn't get used to the scene of islands floating above Delta. This was another thing he didn't want to deal with but would probably have to in the future.

After all, It was Al'Zalsar who put the mountains in the sky, so it was kind of their responsibility to make sure there were no negative impacts...

He shook his head. This was not a topic he wanted to think about right now. With quick steps, he entered the city, and these steps led him in the direction of the Demon District.

Today's agenda was finding a soul trader and his first stop was the college. Maybe Ember could give him a hint of where to look. Otherwise, the Demon District was way too big to wander and search aimlessly.